The early, negative reviews for Lifeline made me wary of my purchase. Some of the write-ups for the game weren’t just negative, they were downright nasty. A few of them were borderline misogynistic, likely reflective of the authors’ past communication failures with the fairer sex. If anything, those particular reviews tended to emphasize the reviewers’ own psychoses rather than any actual faults in the game design. Take this EGM gem: You mostly bark the names of objects, since Rio is…

I started writing some initial Lifeline impressions but I want to get through more of it before I post any concrete thoughts. In brief: it is my belief that a good chunk of the reviews are criticising it fairly, but for the wrong reasons (if that makes sense). By no means is it a great game, but the technology isn’t as bad as many make it out to be. IGN’s review isn’t too bad, excepting the “laughable” comparisons to the…

Lifeline requires a headset to play, but ships without one. At the nearby EB (at a new and very convenient location — they’ve been expanding a lot in this area), I stared blankly at the game wall for a good five minutes thinking about this headset dilemma. It would be easy to deride Sony for not including a headset with the broadband adapter, but the comparison to the XBox Live Starter Kit is an unfair one. Lifeline is an offline…

I started writing some thoughts about the old Playstation game Carnage Heart and its parallels to the esoteric befunge programming language. However, I got tired and couldn’t flesh out a complete thought so, in its place, I’ll link to this crazy 24MB Ikaruga play video. I can barely chain through a stage as it is; I can’t imagine doing it while controlling two ships… at once. Those crazy Japanese geeks! Also, this retro gaming collection craze is really gaining steam.…

Try GamingFM’s Name that Game Contest. I thought my level of geekery in regards to game music was decent, but this contest has humbled me. I can only get three with any degree of certainty, even though many do sound familiar. Here’s my list so far: Sounds like it could be Halo? I don’t have it, so I can’t tell for certain. Confirmed, thanks Boy! Arg. I know this, but I can’t figure out from where. Earthworm Jim 2 –…

There are many gaming-related weblogs out there, all with the default syndication options enabled — so there are many such feeds out there. However, one thing that has always been difficult to track down is a gaming news feed. There is the news aggregating GameTab, which rss-ifies the latest headlines, but I’ve always found it limited as it only displays the headlines with no excerpts or briefs. Yesterday, to my surprise, I discovered that Gamespot now offers RSS feeds. Useful.…

I’m hesitant to use the word “addiction” as that’s been bandied about in regards to many, many articles about “media addiction”, and I don’t want to associate myself with that bunk. Instead, I think the proper term is “obsession.” Yesterday, I acquired R-Type Final, WipeOut XL (for $9! How could I have possibly passed on that?), Europa Universalis: Crown of the North and Cossacks: European Wars (on clearance, $9). The last two of which were purchased to quell the strategy…

Oh how fortuitous! My first payday in many months happens to land in Metroid Zero Mission release week. Technically, it comes a few days after the release date, but these are the situations for which Visa was created. Ahem. I was going to briefly check out the game before going to sleep. Without realizing it, “brief” became about two and a half hours long. I enjoyed every second of it. This is the game that Metroid Fusion should have been.…

It’s pointless, but I find the website mixmaster strangely amusing. The best mix for my content has to be, in my humble opinion, Timecube: timecube vs the-inbetween. Other fun mixes: McGuinty vs International Association of Assholes; President Bush vs Landover Baptist; Paul Martin Times vs Maddox Hatemail. Though, I imagine, the more proper mix for the last one would be Paul Martin Time (not to be confused with the plural “Times”). Say what you want about Chretien, but at least…

New year’s resolutions are worthless to me. I don’t bother. However, there are some things that, as a gamer, I do wish to complete. The ones that sit there on the shelf and mock me. Those are the ones I want to put to rest. I WILL finish one of the Grand Theft Auto games. Most likely, Grand Theft Auto 3. I have played both games extensively, but I have yet to complete all the missions. Screw all the hidden…

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Midway Arcade Treasures. Normally, I don’t bother with such collections because I don’t think they’re worth it — especially when they have a mere 4 to 6 games. However, in this case, I felt compelled. For one, I’ve been playing a lot of Robotron over the last year; ever since I discovered it (it was before my time). As such, I wanted to have some of my cash go to Midway as a sign of…

Metroid Prime, 100% complete in 1:37. The videos are definitely something. While I won’t go as far as to pretentiously call it a sort of digital “performance art”, I will say that they are strangely fascinating. There’s a certain pleasure in seeing something executed so flawlessly and so expertly. The best comparison I can think of is rally racing. In my opinion, watching a driver perfectly weave and slide through a challenging stage is far more enjoyable than watching a…